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It should have been called The Do-Over. This sequel to the wildly popular first Hangover doesn't stray too far from the original -- same shtick, different location. Instead of Vegas and a missing groom and a tiger, the boys are in Bangkok with, literally, a monkey on their back, trying to find the bride's missing brother. Not so much hilarity ensues.

The first problem in The Hangover Part II (love that stately Romanesque numeral) is one of syntax. Specifically, there is no second part of a hangover. It's either the same hangover, or it's over. This film should have been called The Do-Over.

Fans of the wildly popular 2009 original will recall that it opened with Phil (Bradley Cooper) announcing: "We lost Doug." He and fellow bachelor partiers Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) then had to find Doug (Justin Bartha), misplaced during a night of Vegas bacchanalia no one could clearly remember.

Part II moves the location to Bangkok and changes the missing person from groom to bride's brother, played by Mason Lee. Don't let that common surname fool you -- Lee is the son of director Ang Lee, and was last on screen as "baby" in his father's 1993 film The Wedding Banquet.

The rest of the new film is equally similar to its predecessor. (How similar? Imagine changing a "2" to a "II.") Socially awkward Alan is the catalyst for the group's amnestic revelries. Ken Jeong leaps into the picture, naked and angry. Mike Tyson has a cameo as himself.

Property is destroyed, cars are wrecked, the police and prostitutes get involved. An exotic pet is abused. "I can't believe this is happening again," says Cooper's character at one point, and I nodded in sympathy.

There are moments of unique hilarity in the screenplay by Scot Armstrong and Craig Mazin. For the most part, however, they seem to have dusted off an early draft of The Hangover by Scott Moore and Jon Lucas, replacing "Phil Collins musical joke" with "Billy Joel musical joke" and making a few other changes.

Their biggest and best additions are a bit by Paul Giamatti as a cackling bad guy, and a Buddhist monk whose vow of silence was taken up for long stretches by the audience at a recent preview screening. Having Galifianakis chortle "It's funny in any language" doesn't help either. The joke in question WOULD be funny in any language if it were funny, which it isn't.

The flaws of the film all come down to the more-of-the-same philosophy. If they liked The Hangover, the thinking goes, they'll like it again. Unfortunately, the best way to replicate the fun of The Hangover is to watch The Hangover on DVD. If you want the theatrical equivalent, try the very funny Bridesmaids.

For the filmmaker's guide on how to succeed in show business by really trying, look to Christopher Nolan. After the critical acclaim and moderate box-office success of 2000's Memento, he did NOT follow it up with another tale of anterograde amnesia, but crafted a clever variation on the theme with the murder mystery Insomnia. Then he made Batman.

I'm not suggesting that Phillips needs to sign up for a superhero movie, although it's a growing field. But give us something new. Even Jason Bourne didn't have his memory re-wiped in every sequel. But listen to Cooper's character in The Hangover Part II: "We forget. That's what we do." It's their blessing, and our curse.

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